Proper 19, Year A
September 11, 2005
Christ Church, Covington
“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then,
whether we live or… die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).
The hurricane I used to know best is in the 1948 movie Key Largo, where Humphrey
Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Edgar G. Robinson ride out the storm on one of the
Keys, in an old-fashioned Florida hotel in the days following the Second World
War. The movie is about lost ideals (that’s Bogart) that are recovered through
the power of love (that’s Bacall) and the challenge of evil (Robinson, of
course). A good film; but what impressed me the first time I saw it was the
storm itself, cleverly evoked in its power and destructive force by director
John Huston, with almost no special effects.
Why am I invoking this fictional storm in the aftermath of our own? It’s an
instance of what journalist A.J. Liebling in once called “the use of the
familiar false as touchstone of the unfamiliar real” (The Foamy Fields). For me,
the experience of Hurricane Katrina is so unlike anything else in my life that
I’m forced to relate it to something fictional in order to make sense of it. I’m
talking about Key Largo, not because it provides an adequate framework for the
experience I’ve had, but because I’m grasping for a conceptual handhold. The
familiar false (that’s the film) as touchstone for the unfamiliar real (that’s
Hurricane Katrina).
So perhaps you’re like me. The experiences that we’ve had and are now living
through, whatever they are for each of us, are on an order of magnitude that
exceeds much of our experience. We are living in the aftermath of the greatest
natural catastrophe ever to take place in the continental United States. We’ve
experienced the danger of a storm of exceptional size and power, temporary
refugee status for some of us, and for others long-term or even permanent
relocation. These are experiences that we are not facing alone or with a few
other people, but with hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. We’re confronted
by a series of question marks, about work, school, and home. It’s “the
unfamiliar real”. We’re faced with transition on a grand scale, of the sort that
Americans have not faced in such great numbers since the Great Depression and
the Second World War.
This brings us to Saint Paul, and a great affirmation of faith. Times of
transition are exactly those points where we need to find touchstones, reliable
and true. In the face of “the unfamiliar real” we need to rely on God, who is
never false. “So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s possession”
(Rom. 14:8, BCP version): that’s how the Burial Service in the Prayer Book puts
it, quoting our second reading today. We don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to
God (that’s Paul’s point); and God can take care of us. We are his, whether for
life or for death. We can depend on him. Each day we live is an opportunity for
us to discover the truth of this reality, a chance for us to “get real” and find
out what we can truly count on.
So there’s our affirmation, something to take away. But there’s also a question
that we need to take away, and this one is even more pressing for us as
Christians: how are we going to minister (that is, serve others) in the midst of
the unfamiliar reality that we now inhabit? Many Episcopal churches on the Gulf
Coast and in New Orleans have either been destroyed or are inaccessible. Unlike
them, we are an “intact” parish and school and retirement community in a heavily
affected area, so we have resources in the midst of great challenges for
ministry. We’re able to reach out: to refugees, to the poorest people in our
community, and to others. We have already begun to minister to refugees by
opening Christ Episcopal School for Monday classes. The Caritas Community has a
damaged roof, and those folks work amongst the poorest in our community. There
are things we can do. So we need to get moving. We have a lot to be thankful
for. There’s an incredible need. Remember Key Largo: the triumph of love over
the power of evil. In the midst of the “unfamiliar real”, we can rely on God and
we can (we must) reach out to others.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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